


Greatest Creation

by winterda



Category: Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Miscarriage, POV Howard Stark, Pregnancy Problems, Sort Of, Super Soldier Serum, not much of a point
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-20
Updated: 2019-01-20
Packaged: 2019-10-13 02:40:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17479667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/winterda/pseuds/winterda
Summary: His greatest creation.And his greatest secret.





	Greatest Creation

**Author's Note:**

> There's not much point to this. I just saw where someone made the suggestion that Tony seems to survive a lot of stuff that should kill a regular human being, and then speculated that maybe Howard did something to him. I just decided to ramble a bit with it. No real plot here. More of a long head cannon, which is odd because I did more research for this than a head cannon should have. Anyway, I hope someone enjoys it.

The first time that Maria told him that she was pregnant, Howard had been terrified and relieved. 

For years, people had been questioning him about who was going to take over the company when he was gone. Howard had put it off for years, figuring that he still had plenty of time to worry about that. He wasn't that old and was in good health, so he hadn't really seen the rush for him to start a family. Then in '59, one of his business partners dropped dead of a heart attack. He'd been two years younger than Howard and, supposedly, in just as good of shape. It had been a bit of a wake-up call.

He'd buckled down after that. Started to date women who would fit a bit more into his society and his social circles and would be what was considered to be “wife material.” They'd all been movie-screen beautiful and as vapid as the film they were recorded on. 

He meet Maria in a hotel bar. He had spilled his drink on her. She'd called him every name under the sun and told him where he could put his money when he offered to buy her a new dress (which he may have also offered to help her change into). She'd snapped and hissed like an angry cat and reminded him so much of his old friend Peggy that he couldn't help but try and smooth things out. Maria surprised him when she let him, and surprised him even more when she agreed to marry him less than a year later.

Children were never really discussed between the two of them, but it was one of those things that was understood. It should have worked out: Maria liked them and Howard needed them and there shouldn't be any problems for that. So they weren't really actively trying, but they weren't trying to stop it either. 

It still took three years before Maria got pregnant. 

She glowed with happiness. 

He drank down his nerves. 

It was over before the month was out. 

They tried again. The same sad scene played out less than a year later.

The next time, Maria made it all the way until the fourth month. They had just begun to discuss baby names, to let themselves be excited that this time it would take. But the kid that had just started to move, stopped one day and never started up again. 

Maria had cried.

Howard drank.

The word “adoption” was starting to be whispered.

She'd had hesitatingly told him this last time, and they had waited for what felt like the inevitable. She followed the doctor's advice, just like all the other times, and was as careful as she could be. Jarvis made it his mission to help her as much as possible, and Howard was careful not to cause her any more stress than needed, which he mainly accomplished by staying busy in his lab. The company flourished from his new designs as Maria grew bigger and bigger, and Obie swore he was doing some his best work yet. 

At twenty weeks, Maria began to relax a bit and Howard felt some pressure start to lessen in his chest.

At twenty-two weeks, they hesitatingly discussed names.

A twenty-six weeks, Maria gave birth to a boy.

A small, weak boy that the doctors weren't even sure would survive. Baby Anthony barely weighed two pounds and was only a little bit longer than Howard's shoe. He choked and struggled all while inside the latest tech designed to keep children like him alive. They couldn't touch him, and Howard, quite frankly, was afraid too. Something that small and that fragile...surely he'd break him. 

A few hours after he came into the world, Anthony nearly left if again. The doctors managed to save him but just barely. Their heavy frowns and carefully schooled eyes told Howard that they didn't have much hope. Prepare for the worst, they seemed to say.

Maria, still exhausted and in pain, sat by the incubator and prayed for her baby to live. 

Howard took a more proactive approach.

Because there was one thing that they both understood. This was it. There would be no more children. Neither of them could go through all of it again. So if Howard wanted an heir, and Maria wanted a baby, Anthony needed to live.

So Howard did what he often did: he went to his lab and tried to fix the problem. 

SHIELD and Peggy wouldn't approve, but Howard wasn't looking for permission. He had to do this. As mad and dangerous as it was, it might be Anthony's only hope. 

The serum wasn't the same as the one they used on Steve. That had been lost so long ago along with its creator, and Peggy had insured that they'd never be able to completely recreate it when she destroyed those vials of blood. Howard didn't need an exact copy of the serum; the bastard form he had created should do the trick. It wasn't as powerful and hadn't had overly positive results in the lab rats, but Howard was desperate. He had been working on the next version for almost four months now – one of his side projects that kept him in his lab and away from stressing out Maria – and was ready to test. 

Howard really didn't see what he had to lose at this point.

Maria slept and was blissfully unaware of what her husband gave to their son.

Anthony coughed a strangled cry, unhappy with his father.

Howard waited and watched.

Four years later, things appear to be in the right place. Tony was healthy and active and as normal as one would expect from a child of that age. 

The doctors had been stunned but pleased when he made it through the night, and then a week, and then a month. He grew and got stronger and his lungs seemed to strength rapidly almost overnight. Maria called it a miracle. Howard did see a reason to correct her. 

There were things, though, that Howard noticed, like how Tony never got sick. Never. Everyone was sure that he would be more substitutable to illness, but he never so much as sneezed. There were no spiking fevers that so many infants get. No issues with his ears. The asthma that the doctors had warned them was a likely given never manifested itself. Nothing. Not even a run-of-the-mill cold. The doctors always commented on how Tony was the healthiest child they had ever seen.

Howard didn't expect anything less. 

Tony was bright, too. Far brighter than a child should be. He shouldn't be that surprised. Howard was a genius himself. But it seemed to be...easier for Tony. At three and half months old, he said his first real word that they could understand, and then was speaking in full, short sentences by six months. By a year, he could read words and knew his numbers. Math came easy to him, and he could multiply large numbers in his head by the time most children were just being potty trained – which, that too, had thankfully been a breeze. 

It was fascinating, and even though he knew shouldn't, Howard couldn't help but observe and record. He scribbled it away in his notebooks in a code that he was sure no one could break next to his notes for a new element. It wouldn't look anything besides more designs for his machines and tech. No one would know. 

No one unworthy, anyway.

Howard glanced over at the StarkExpo design and grinned to himself. Another little puzzle to be solved, and there was only one person that he thought could. Only one that would.

His greatest creation. 

And his greatest secret.


End file.
